1972 IMO Problems/Problem 3
Let and
be arbitrary non-negative integers. Prove that
is an integer. (
.)
Solution
Let . We intend to show that
is integral for all
. To start, we would like to find a recurrence relation for
.
First, let's look at :
Second, let's look at :
Combining,
.
Therefore, we have found the recurrence relation .
We can see that is integral because the RHS is just
, which we know to be integral for all
.
So, must be integral, and then
must be integral, etc.
By induction, is integral for all
.